Information Related to "Did Jesus Have Long Hair?"
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Most people assume that Jesus had long hair. After all, that's the way they've always seen Him portrayed in every painting, drawing or movie. That's the only Jesus they've ever seen. But are those depictions accurate?
The fact is, we don't know what Jesus looked like, because the first depictions of Him weren't done until hundreds of years later. Thus every image we've ever seen of Him is based solely on artists' imaginations.
While we don't know what Jesus looked like, we do know that He didn't look like the common depictions of Him with long hair. After all, this same Jesus inspired the apostle Paul to write in 1 Corinthians 11:14: "Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?"
In addition to this instruction regarding long hair on men, the Bible also contains circumstantial evidence that Jesus didn't have long hair.
Perhaps the most telling is that when Judas betrayed Jesus, he had to identify Jesus by a kiss. That was the prearranged signal Judas had given so that the guards could identify Jesus. Why did Judas have to do that? Because Jesus looked just like any average man of His day, and they wouldn't have been able to identify Him if Judas hadn't betrayed Him with a kiss.
This incident shows us that Jesus looked like any ordinary, average Jew of His day; there was nothing distinguishing about Him. The messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53:2 (NIV) says of Him: "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."
The Gospels tell us that on at least two occasions Jesus slipped away into the crowds when people were trying to kill Him (Luke 4:30; John 8:59). He was able to escape harm because He was simply an average-looking man of His day and blended in with the other people around Him.
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